Why Company Sponsored Volunteer Programs Are Keeping Millennials Happy At Work

Millennials today view work as an integrated part of their life, not a separate activity, so they are deeply concerned with ensuring that their company’s values align with their own. As a result, it’s no surprise that the frequency of corporate sponsored volunteer time has increased millennial job satisfaction.

According to the 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey, millennials who stay with their company for five years or longer were 88% satisfied with their sense of purpose, which ranked higher than any other aspect of their job.

Young talent is unlikely to stick around an organization that operates contrary to their personal values. Further, companies that support an employee’s efforts to advance causes they care about through volunteering programs stand to retain their talent.

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Millennials Value Volunteering

The hype around the millennial generation being the giving generation is not without merit. If you give millennials time to volunteer, they will use it. The 2016 Millennial Impact Report found that 46% of respondents had volunteered for a cause affiliated with a social issue they care about in the past month. Further, 52% had donated to a cause affiliated with a social issue they care about in the past month.

Many young adults volunteer their time outside of work, but nearly two-thirds of millennial employees surveyed by Deloitte Volunteer Impact Research prefer companies that let them volunteer skills while at work.

“The Assurance Caring Together program is one of my favorite things about working at Assurance,” said Sonia Aujla, age 30, Senior Client Service Representative at Assurance, an independent insurance agency in Chicago. “Having had the opportunity to choose from such an expansive list of volunteer options over my five years here has been such an amazing experience. Every time I leave one of these ACT days, I walk away with such an amazing sense of accomplishment and pride.”

If you ask a millennial who has participated in a volunteer program through their work, you’re likely to hear rave reviews.

“Being heavily involved in the social media accounts for UHY Cares, our company’s nonprofit, I am able to see all of the donations to different organizations, all of the volunteering we do and how much we help in our local community,” shared Chris Clark, Marketing and Communications Coordinator at UHY LLP, a certified public accountants company. “Seeing all of that definitely makes me appreciate the company I work for more.”

Corporate Volunteering Programs

While corporate paid-release volunteer programs are nothing new, they continue to grow in popularity. When they began, they were common among the largest companies, but smaller companies did not have an expectation for volunteering.

“Today, employees expect their companies to be good corporate citizens,” shared Tyrene Hodge, Corporate Responsibility Manager at Cox Enterprises, a communications, media, and automotive services company. “It’s not a nice to do, it’s a business imperative.”

It’s clear that in today’s market, to attract millennials, having a paid-release volunteer program does not give a company an edge, but rather keeps the company competitive with other employers.